Republican National Committee rejects most rule changes

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — An activist-led push to repeal all of the rule changes pushed through by Mitt Romney’s envoy at last summer’s Republican National Convention failed here Wednesday.

But a coalition of libertarians and conservatives on the Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee voted to remove one of the most controversial requirements: that the winner of a state caucus or primary automatically gets to control its delegates.

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A nearly four-hour fight at the RNC Spring meeting, which unfolded in a windowless ballroom of a fancy hotel, showcased the mounting tension between the establishment and movement conservatives, for now in cahoots with Rand Paul supporters, over the direction of the party in the wake of last November’s electoral thumping.

The full RNC still needs to approve the proposal on delegate allocation at a general session Friday. Its fate is uncertain, and D.C.-based party leaders might try to block it. Any change to the rules requires support from three-quarters of the 168 members. It passed the smaller committee by only a 31-20 margin.

Division within the rules committee suggest that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will face difficulty in winning buy-in for many of the recommendations made last month by a five-member task force he convened on how to win elections again.

“So, we take it rule-by-rule now,” said Nevada national committeeman James Smack, a Paul booster, suggesting that he plans to introduce 15 to 20 amendments at future gatherings. “We’re prepared to fight back.”

Representatives from caucus states came in upset over the requirement passed last summer in Tampa aimed at ending beauty contests in 2016. Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses, for example, but Ron Paul wound up controlling the delegation to the national convention because he organized volunteers to compete in county, district and state conventions.

The Romney campaign was frustrated because they would win the so-called “beauty contest” but then need to send operatives back to organize for local conventions to make sure they got the delegates.

“With no disrespect to the Santorum and the Romney campaign in Iowa, they didn’t do their job,” said Iowa national committeeman Steve Scheffler, a prominent social conservative. “People that are involved in the grassroots should be able to choose those delegates.”

“You may not like the results that you saw in Iowa, but states should be allowed to do what they want,” he added.

Other Republicans at the meeting argued that non-binding elections make voters less likely to participate and also empower the extremes of the party. They argued that candidates are less likely to campaign in places where they’re not sure a victory on Election Day will translate into delegates for the convention.

“That is not a smart way to grow the party,” said Henry Barbour, Republican national committeeman from Mississippi who opposed scrapping many of the Romney Rules. “The rules that we passed in Tampa honor what happens in primaries. We need to value what happens in primaries and caucuses, as well as state conventions. We want to have more participation, not less participation.”